


Rabbit Park

by TheNatureKing



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-29 20:31:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13934820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNatureKing/pseuds/TheNatureKing
Summary: In Rabbit Park, anything can happen. It’s where Junmyeon asks Jongdae to help him, but then his eyes roll in the back of his head and Jongdae runs away screaming like a little girl. I mean, who wouldn’t run away? A large-scale conspiracy involving the government and their supposed secret human experiments? A mysterious murder with the unknown murderer still at large? Falling in love with a… man-ghost(?) Let’s scratch that last one, but who in their right mind would actually commit themselves to something so… life-threatening? Who could possibly—okay, Jongdae does but that’s only because unwanted Feelings are forced onto him by said man-ghost(?) and that’s what unwanted Feelings make you do. They make you risk your life to clear an innocent man-ghost’s name, find and stop a killer, and try to expose the government without dying yourself. Also, they make you find time to take a walk in the park to experience memories that aren’t yours. It’s never a dull moment in Rabbit Park!(Will update tags accordingly. T rating for now, may become M later~)





	Rabbit Park

**Author's Note:**

> hello, thenatureking here~ I asked you on twitter if you were interested in seeing my Suchen story and some of you were so here's the first chapter of Rabbit Park! I hope you can enjoy it! It's unbeta'd so I apologize if there are glaring mistakes; notify me and I'll fix it immediately! I also don't know what additional tags I should use lol I don't use ao3 often enough.

“Hey, did you hear about what they found in the park yesterday?”

“No, what?”

“A dead body! They say it was a girl.”

There’s a quiet gasp of “what?”, and then a brisk shush behind Jongdae, and he chuckles to himself because of it, sensing the tentative gaze of his three co-workers congregating in the little hallway space between the front counter and the storage room. He could, being second-in-command under their absent boss, whip around and scold them for socializing instead of working, but the traffic in the cafe has been abnormally slow all day, and there are only so many empty tables he can order them to wipe down. Today’s their lucky day, Jongdae thinks, so he decides to let them be. He can always go back and change his mind should the cafe pick up again. After all, all it takes is a _look_ from him; he has that power in his eye.

After a little brief pause, thinking that the man can’t hear them, they continue their conversation.

“A dead body at _Rabbit_ _Park_?” Jongin repeats, hands bawled in front of his mouth. Chanyeol nods and Jongin whimpers. His eyes are wide like saucers, and possibly already watering. He imagines a kid or someone out for a morning jog stumbling over the find. The thought just makes him sick to his stomach. “Oh, no, that’s awful.”

“What happened? Was it a murder?” Kyungsoo asks. He was the one who had shushed the two of them earlier, but his volume as a result of his eagerness betrays his earlier sentiments.

“I’m not sure. Baek wouldn’t tell me anything. He said he didn’t wanna lose his job but judging by his reactions, I think so. It’s gonna be on the nightly news tonight, anyway, so we’ll see.”

Jongin smacks his lips and whines again. “I can’t believe it. A murder in our little city?”

“I know right,” Chanyeol says. “It’s crazy to believe. Our parents used to call this place ‘the perfect little city’, but I can’t imagine ever telling my future kids that.”

“It’s just one murder, guys,” Kyungsoo says, and when they both look at him with scandalized expressions, he rolls his eyes and rephrases himself. “I meant like, one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch. Or whatever the saying is.”

“Actually, it does,” Jongdae interjects, facing their red-handed expressions with a knowing smirk. “The saying goes: one bad apple spoils the bunch so…”

“Wow, look at you, Kyungsoo! Thought you were smart, huh,” Chanyeol teases. He goes to rub the short man’s buzz-cut head but stops when he’s met with Kyungsoo’s glare.

“Sorry for ruining your argument,” Jongdae says cheerily.

The bell at the cafe of the door catches his attention and in swarms a bunch of students shaking the rain off the umbrellas and squeaking with every move. Jongdae chances a look through the side window and winces at the dark clouds spilling rain from above. The clouds had been grayish all day, but he hadn’t realized it would rain. He sighs envisioning a soaked thirty-minute walk home before snapping back into work-mode. Chanyeol, Jongin, and Kyungsoo all receive the _look_ and they’re lively and back-to-action.

A chorus of “welcome, how can I help you?” sings out from them in a smooth harmonization of tenor and baritone voices. They _did_ work in a place called Melody Cafe. Singing was a part of the job.

~~

“Are you gonna be okay?” Jongin asks Jongdae for the tenth time and for the tenth time (Kyungsoo answers for him and says they need to go because he hates driving in the dark).

Jongdae holds true to his original response: “Yes, Jongin, I will be.”

“Are you sure—”

“Jongin,” Kyungsoo growls and Jongin whips around to give him his puppy dog eyes but it’s clear that Kyungsoo’s already won by the way Jongin is putting on his jacket and scarf much faster than he was nine repeated questions ago.

“Looks like the rain is letting up for a little bit. You guys better hurry up and go,” Jongdae says. He ushers the two out of the store--Jongin by pushing his back-- and once they’ve crossed the threshold, Kyungsoo mouths “thank you”. Before he leaves, though, Jongin tries one last time.

“We can wait an hour until you get off and give you a ride, can’t we Kyungsoo?”

Jongin doesn’t even bother looking to Kyungsoo for a response because if he had, he would have seen him rolling his eyes.

“I’ll be fine, Jongin. Go.”

Jongdae smiles softly before closing the door behind him. He suppresses a laugh at Jongin’s face. How a grown man could pull off a pout better than children could amazed him.

“Excuse me! Can I get a refill, please?”

Jongdae turns his attention away from the door to the girl at the front and gives her a warm smile. “Ah, yes, just a second.”

When he turns back, however, the six-foot tall manchild and his shorter caretaker are gone.

Jongdae goes to get her a refill and once he starts on the leftover cleaning and closing procedures, he loses track of time. It isn’t until he hears the familiar door chime that he glances at the clock on the wall.

10:04 p.m.

The cafe was supposed to be closed so who was—

Jongdae’s hairs stand on end and he grips the broom in his hands a little tighter.

The man marching towards him is big and decked out in all black, baggy, and loose clothing. His hood is up too--which makes sense if he were out in the rain--but it only feeds the voice in the back of his head drumming up the bad thoughts.

“H-hey,” his voice cracks, but he ignores it, “sorry, we’re closed.”

The man stops dead in his tracks and looks back at the door. “But the sign said--”

“The one below it says open 6 to 10 on weekdays. Sorry.”

Jongdae’s resolve is a little bit stronger after hearing the man’s voice— not as deep as he expected— and seeing the confusion etched out on his features; Jongdae spots a few piercings dotting his face. If he had to guess, there was probably a couple in his ear, in his tongue, and areas Jongdae didn’t want to think about at the moment.

“Are you sure?” the man asks and Jongdae almost snorts because he’s seen this before at his previous jobs with rude, elderly ladies, but almost never in the coffee shop business. “I mean, I came in here the other day around midnight and the owner made me a drink.”

“Minseok?” Jongdae says aloud and the hesitant recognition that flashes in the man’s eyes goes over his head.

“Yeah, him.” He coughs. “Short dude, a little shorter than you. Kind of looks like a cat. A lil gummy smile.”

Jongdae gives in at the last one. He recovers quickly however and stares hard at the man.

“How do you know Minseok?”

“I—” Jongdae follows the man’s gaze until they make contact again. “Childhood friends,” he admits. Jongdae misses the reluctance again, mind to caught up in the bizarreness of the situation to process anything properly.

“Well, look, I can’t make you anything right now. We’re closed and I’m not the owner. What he did with the store on his own time--that’s his business--but I’m not comfortable taking that liberty into my own hands. Sorry.”

The man squints at Jongdae, but not as if he was looking at Jongdae, but rather at something in the distance _behind_ Jongdae.

“Okay! I’m going!” he suddenly shouts, sending Jongdae’s heart into the throat. The man turns around and marches back out, and Jongdae wants to absolutely cry because he’s left footprints of whatever muddy substance was caked to his boots. Jongdae throws his broom to the ground and goes to get the mop instead.

By the time he finishes getting up the strange gunk, it’s about a quarter till eleven. Jongdae turns off all the lights and locks up behind himself before he begins his walk home.

Jongdae knows he should take the long way, but doing so means he won’t get home until almost midnight. And if he takes the short way, he can it make it in thirty, maybe twenty-five if he hustles a bit. The clouds have cleared a bit and the moon sits pretty in the sky so it doesn’t seem like he has to worry about rain, so he _could_ take the long way… _but_ he kind of has to use the bathroom and going back to the cafe just seems unreasonable.

Short way it is, then, Jondage reasons, and he guides himself in the direction of Rabbit Park.

~~

_“Hey, did you hear about what they found in the park yesterday?”_

_“No, what?”_

_“A dead body! They say it was a girl.”_

A tingle runs up through Jongdae’s spine and he shivers. He zips up his jacket all the way and hastens his walk through the park, looking behind him every so often. The park is empty which isn’t exactly odd given the time of night, but Jongdae can’t help but remember the conversation from earlier, and it’s honestly freaking him out the longer he’s inside. Who decided to make the park so big in the first place anyway?

Chanyeol was right--which deserves a laugh in and of itself--it was crazy to believe. A girl died in this park? No, her dead body was found in this park. Possibly murder. Yesterday of all days and here Jongdae was walking right through it alone in the middle of the night. He hadn’t gotten the full scoop but had the murderer been caught yet? If not, was Jongdae just dying to--wait, let’s rephrase that--begging to become a victim by being out here vulnerable and all exposed.

A breeze rushes around him and Jongdae shivers again, but he can’t help but notice how these chills were different from the earlier ones. Nonetheless, he picks up the pace.

“Almost out. Over halfway through.”

Jongdae keeps mumbling to himself tiny, sometimes incoherent, assurances that taking the short way was worth it and not going to end with him in a body bag the next morning. It’s working though, he thinks, so he keeps doing that. His walk seems to be going smoothly until he feels something poke inside his ear. That does it. Jongdae lets out a manly shriek and whirls around with his fists raised and poised to swing. Whoever’s trying to kill him won’t be expecting to put up a fight… however, whoever’s trying to kill him doesn’t exist?

Still, in the park stands Jongdae alone, fists raised to punch a ghost apparently. He sees a fat fly whiz past him and upon realization, lets out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

“Just a fly, oh thank God,” he groans. “I really didn’t want to die today.”

Jongdae searches the surroundings one more time before taking a step back to turn around when he stumbles over something and nearly falls.

“What the—a camera?”

Jongdae picks up the object and examines it. It’s one of those Instax mini cameras that could spit out polaroids, Jongdae recognizes. His niece had begged for one last Christmas. He dusts it off and apologizes mentally to whoever owned it. This type of camera wasn’t exactly cheap if his sister’s groans were anything to go by when they went to the store to find one. He had secretly wanted her to buy him one too, but instead, all he got were some socks and sweaters. Jongdae studies the camera—it’s a rich violet in color with gold frames, clearly someone went through the troubles of having it custom made—before contemplating trying it out.

“These _are_ pretty cool,” he says to no one in particular. “And I have to check to see if I broke it just in case.”

He raises the camera to his eyes, squints, looks through it and sees nothing. Then he notices there’s a power button and switches it on. A nauseous feeling washes over him and his eye throbs in pain. He lowers the camera and tries blinking rapidly, but when that doesn’t seem to help, he then tries rubbing his eye directly, probably making it worse, he gathers.

“Hey, you found my camera!”

This time, Jongdae’s shriek is more high-pitched, definitely the least close to manly.

“Woah, woah, woah, calm down. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

The owner of the soothing voice has his hands raised in defense and a glint of amusement in his eye. Jongdae suspects there’s something more delicately laced within his countenance, but it’s hard to observe anything with his eye burning.

“Is there something in your eye? Do you want some help?” the stranger asks, but Jongdae is a bit skeptical. Where did this dude come from? Was he really so focused on the camera that he hadn’t noticed the dude walking up?

Jongdae realizes he hasn’t uttered a sound (other than his unmanly cry) but the guy approaches him regardless. He seemingly floats to Jongdae because he’s in his face quicker than he anticipated, hands resting lightly on his cheeks.

“Hold still,” he says with gentle authority and by God for some odd reason, Jongdae listens? The man puts his lips together and blows air gently into Jongdae’s eye and when he’s done, he steps back and lets Jongdae blink some more. Like magic, Jongdae’s eye doesn’t feel the sharp irritation anymore.

“Thanks, I guess that helped,” Jongdae says to which the guy dismisses with a wave of his hands. He can imagine how he must look red-faced and teary-eyed--like a big baby he bets--but the stranger’s amicable air doesn’t leave him. He doesn’t know what to say so—

“My name’s Junmyeon, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

Junmyeon looks like he went to raise his hand, probably for a shake, but leaves it resting at his side.

“Jongdae,” Jongdae replies after clearing his throat. This was definitely one of the most awkward introductions he’s ever done. “So, this is your camera?” Jongdae holds it up and then gives it to Junmyeon who takes it carefully.

“Yeah,” he says softly, almost out of range of Jongdae’s hearing, “My girlfriend got me it as a gift for our anniversary.”

Jongdae’s not sure what to do with the overshared information so he just says, “Ah” and does that nodding thing people do when they want others to know that they’re listening. He’s never been good with awkward, small-talk anyhow. He starts thinking of what excuse he can use so he can hurry on his way home.

When he looks back at Junmyeon, though, the excuse dies on his lips. The man looks distraught staring at the camera and Jongdae feels his heart sink a bit.

“I’m so sorry if there’s a scratch on it or if it’s ruined. I wasn’t looking where I was going and stepped on it by accident.”

Junmyeon snaps out his trance and furrows his brows in confusion. A small smile breaks out and he chuckles. Jongdae’s pretty sure he’s never heard a laugh that sounds _pleasant_ to his ears.

“It’s not broke, see?”

He holds the camera away from him and snaps a pic while doing a sideways L with his thumb and index finger.

The camera flashes and for a second Jongdae thinks Junmyeon disappears. The smile on his face as he hears the soft purr the violet-gold camera makes when it’s making the polaroid is bigger than the one he used for the photo. He grabs the photo and flicks it a tiny bit. His face lights up and then he shows Jongdae the photo of him. The lighting seems a bit off, but Jongdae just chalks that up to him knowing nothing about photography and good lighting.

“Not broke at all,” Junmyeon reaffirms cheerfully. Suddenly, he’s handing the camera back to Jongdae who’s even more confused.

“Wait—what?”

“Go ahead, try it. I saw you trying to take one before,” Junmyeon chuckles. He puts some space between them and does a weird pose.

“Take one of me! Come on!” he shouts playfully.

Nobody can probably hear them because nobody is probably in the park at this late hour but Jongdae really feels like they should be using their inside voices past a certain time in public. He raises the camera to his eye and snaps the pick quickly, just to get it over with. The photo prints out with the same purr from earlier and Jongdae has to admit, there is a strange feeling being behind this thing. He shows Junmyeon the picture and he smiles upon seeing it.

“Can I have these?” he asks, and his eagerness reminds him of Jongin.

“It’s your camera,” Jongdae says. He hands the picture over, wondering when he even began to smile. “Hey—”

They’re both startled by Junmyeon’s phone ringing. After Jongdae swallows his heart back down, he starts to laugh but stops when he notices Junmyeon’s grimace.

“Are you okay?” Jongdae finds himself asking on reflex. Jongdae’s had his fair share of unwanted callers; he knows how a good mood can be turned upside just from seeing a name.

Junmyeon stares at his phone with a dark expression. A cool breeze rushes past him— not around Junmyeon, but he’s too busy focused on Junmyeon himself to notice.

Jongdage ventures. “Who is it?”

“My girlfriend.”

“Oh.” Jongdae pauses. “Wait, isn’t that a good thing?”

Junmyeon looks up at him slowly and Jongdae feels his blood freeze, his hairs are on end again.

“No…”

“Well…” Jongdae swallows. “Why not?”

“Because she’s dead.”

Another gust of wind, too strong, one stronger than he’s ever felt before, knocks him forward. He stumbles trying to catch his imbalance but crashes right into Junmyeon who holds him still. Junmyeon feels barely there as if Jongdae will stumble right through him, but surprisingly, his light grip holds and hoists him up.

“Please help us,” Junmyeon whispers.

His eyes roll into the back of his head then and Jongdae screams. He pushes the man back and trips over something again, losing his balance and hitting the ground. He hears something click—or was that a crunch?—from the camera but when he looks up, Junmyeon is gone.

Jongdae whips his head around and doesn’t see him anywhere.

“What the hell…”

Jongdae forgets trying to think about whatever happened and starts running. Just run. Don’t think. Run. Run. Run.

He makes it to his apartment complex ten minutes later and it isn’t until he’s at his door does he realize he was holding onto the camera the entire time. It must have been adrenaline because he hadn’t even noticed. He chucks the camera somewhere in his room and then slips out of his work clothes so he can hop in the shower to calm his nerves. Actually, that’s a bad idea. A shower only gives him time to _think_ which is the opposite of what he wants to do right now. He hurries soaping up and rinsing off and he’s sure his water bill will thank him for once.

With just a towel wrapped around his waist, Jongdae plops down on his couch instead of his mattress, clicking the tv on to a random channel: it’s the news. Great, he thinks, I can do the news. The anchors drone on and on about city-related things he should honestly find important, and if even though he doesn’t, he focuses harder than he did during his college lectures. How fascinating, the city has finally decided to fill the half a dozen potholes on the main street. Soon enough, the exhaustion from the long day _and night_ sink in. He slips into a deep sleep within minutes.

The news continues on and the topic eventually lands on the body of the girl found in Rabbit Park.

_'The chief of police has released an updated statement on the body found in Rabbit Park yesterday evening… … …_

_'The chief revealed that the primary suspect was indeed the victim’s boyfriend— 26-year-old Kim Junmyeon — who has seemingly disappeared without a trace._

_'Kim reportedly had not been seen or in contact with his friends or family for the last few days, which was not characteristic of the man. “He was a very busy man, but he never missed a day to call and check up on everyone,” Kim’s mother said. “He told his dad and I he loved us every day.”_

_'Overall, Kim’s friends and family had described him positively, but some noted that there were rare occasions where they supposedly bore witness to a nasty temper Kim had, almost always when he was with his girlfriend…  … …_

_'In his closing the statement, the chief of police only had one wish: “If you have any information pertaining to the whereabouts about Kim Junmyeon or any details that may be helpful in leading to the solving of this murder, please do not hesitate to reach out. This man could be anywhere, and most importantly, he could be dangerous. Let’s not let another tragedy take place. Thank you.”_

_'Like the chief of police said, if you have any valuable information, please do not hesitate to call the hotline number listed below… … …'_

The tv flicks off minutes later. Jongdae sets the remote down and stands up. He walks to the door and unlocks it. He then turns around and heads to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him and dropping on the bed.

In the morning, Jongdae wakes up with a killer headache, six missed calls, and an earful from Kyungsoo scolding him for being late. He stumbles out of his bedroom in a wrinkled work shirt and yesterday’s jeans, and in his haste, he fails to notice the dried boot prints both inside and outside his apartment door.

~~to be con~~

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired off of a random pic of Junmyeon that I saw and fell in love with lol. If I can figure out how to link it here, I will, otherwise I'll probably just post it on twt. Please don't forget to leave a comment! Thank you!  
> ~thenatureking


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